Straus issues proclamation for investigation of UT regent

Citing “concerns that warrant further inquiry,” House Speaker Joe Straus issued a proclamation Tuesday directing the Select Committee on Transparency in State Agencies to investigate the conduct of University of Texas regent Wallace Hall and to consider articles of impeachment if warranted.

Hall, a Dallas businessman, has been criticized for conducting what some call a “witch hunt” through time-consuming open records requests directed at the University of Texas at Austin in hopes of finding an excuse to fire President William C. Powers.

Straus said the Texas House has the responsibility of monitoring executive appointees who oversee “institutions that belong to taxpayers of Texas,” and to make sure that “the highest standards of good government are being followed.”

Hall has claimed that all of the records he has requested are essential to fulfilling his role as a regent. Tuesday, Straus said that “there is a significant difference between appropriate oversight and destructive conduct that can be detrimental to our public institutions and the people who work in them.” For that reason, he said his proclamation will authorize committee to recommend Hall’s removal “if grounds for impeachment exist.”

Yesterday, UT-Austin Gary Susswein said that dozens of university staff members have devoted weeks into complying with Hall’s latest request: copies of all correspondence between Powers and any current or former member of the Texas Legislature or U.S. Congress since January 2009. Tuesday, he said that officials with the University of Texas System took the documents from the Austin campus before the university’s open records attorneys had time to finish reviewing them for confidential information about staff and students protected by federal privacy laws.

Hall has also been criticized for failing to disclose several lawsuits against him in his application to become a regent, which could amount to a criminal act of falsifying a government document. But Hall has maintained in public interviews that Gov. Rick Perry’s staff advised him he did not have to disclose the lawsuits. Perry’s office had declined to comment on that allegation.

Straus’s action came after Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, filed a resolution calling for Hall’s impeachment. Perry’s office responded by suggesting that lawmakers were trying to stop Hall from obtaining information about lawmakers influencing the admissions process.

The committee met briefly Tuesday. Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston, co-chair of the committee, promised that “these impeachment proceedings will be both thorough and impartial, and we intend to use all necessary resources and powers at the Committee’s disposal to ensure an effective investigation. I am confident the Committee will bring new, nonpartisan insights on what has been a contentious series of events.”